First, the love that should not be named will be impossible by noon: the kittens are at the vet getting their love torn asunder. No Doppleganger Dolls in my house! (And they're not even blond.) I pick them up at 4, where they will come home, be snuggled and loved and fed delicious wet foods. <3 I was a sad cat mom dropping them off with their terrified mreows. :( SOON, MY DARLINGS!! Wah. A necessary evil.

Second, the under-layer of cement is in, dried, and is now being "watered" repeatedly by me. Well, not NOW, now I am typing.

DAY 7

When we last left off yesterday, there were dump trucks a-go-go in the street. Cement mixers, a bobcat, and some big old hoses. Let's get to mixing!

Laying out hoses and setting up fans. It was another scorcher yesterday, heat index here was 110.

The hot tub is about to get a wall!

Meet Phil. Phil is about to give me a dream realized. One of the good dreams, not the one where I have duck feet and trip up the stairs and can't throw punches while my teeth fall apart. (Just me?)

Guys? I can't see the magic when you use safety screens. Heaven forbid we get cement on my soil of health and wonder. (That's sarcasm.)

Ahh, that's better. Also, why so sad, Mr. Deep End? Or do you just have awesome shoes?

Spraying the first wall!

Closer!

You can see that they're starting to form the edges - the nice, sharp rectangles.

How about we get started on that pool?

Big tanning ledge is formed, let's get cracking on the deep end, huzzah!

Shaping up the walls, shaping up the walls, gosh oh golly mighty, we're shaping up the walls! (Um, sing that to "bringing in the sheaves," because that's how my mind works.)

It's getting there!

Now you can see the "waterfall" overspill area from the hot tub to the pool. If we want to heat the pool up in winter, this is how it works. WINTER SWIMMING = AWESOME.

Wrapped up for the day! Now I have to soak this with a sprinkler for a few hours. (Apparently this helps the cement cure more strongly? IDK.)

I now believe this is going to happen. It's all been iffy up until this point. Ha.

Those steps are looking mighty fine! And doesn't the drop off seem crazy severe? It's not, but it seems that way.

Hot tub is all done and yes, those pipes will be cut to fit. Otherwise, ouch.

And from the deep end... That little bench at the deep end looks great. :)

DAY EIGHT!

I ran the sprinklers on the pool for 5 hours last night, and this is how it looked this morning.

Guys, it is CRAZY HUMID this morning, as evidenced by this shot.

I get to stand out there five or six times today and water the cement, yay? I think the boy needs a chore today. :)

Yesterday I finished up all of the school supply shopping, then bought the girls school clothes. Last to accomplish is getting the boy to wear something that doesn't look like he traded a half-smoked cigarette to a bum for their clothes and shoes for #2 because her feet WON'T STOP GROWING. She's wearing an adult's 9. *cry* One day she'll level out, but it can't come soon enough for me. Or my wallet. One full week and a weekend and they're all in school!! AND I GET THE POOL TO MYSELF, HAHAHAHAHA!

I'm so boring now, sorry. It'll all be over soon, honest! (Oh, and tonight is Jersey Shore! I've needed more material to work with, so after last week, I'm guessing there will be loads to talk about in the morning. And there won't be new pool stuff happening of interest to distract me from what's important: making fun of ridiculous people.)

In other news, dovil and I are planning our epic road trip across the western part of the US, culminating in a drunken 3-days in Las Vegas. YAY SPRING OF 2011! She's pretty much the only person aside from my husband that I can see doing this with. Hikes! Booze! Killing drifters! Drug muling! Oh, the memories we'll share. (And we're taking a convertible, too. IN STYLE, Y'ALL. We're going in style.)

Are You Actually

Reading this? I'm just curious. Because that's really detail-oriented of you. Feel free to stop reading. But you can see that there's more here, so are you going to keep reading? Really? That's pretty dedicated. I'm impressed. No, really. I'm not being sarcastic, why do you get like that? See, this is the problem I have with your mother - yes. YES. I'm going there. It's time we put all of our cards on the table.

I love you, why are you doing this? After all we've been through? You don't have to be like this. You know, still reading. You could be baking a pie. And then sharing it with me.